Problems of livestock production in Nigeria.

i. Feed and feeding

Provision of feed that is adequate in quality, quantity and available to animals year-
round is the major problem of livestock production in Nigeria.

Ruminant animal production still depends mainly on utilization of the natural range as
the primary source of nutrients. Even though this feed resource rapidly increases in
nutritive value at the onset of rains when it provides fairly good nutrients to the
animals, it depreciates few months after the early growth and nutrient content falls
below minimum animal requirements. In the dry season, animals that depend solely
on this feed resource are almost on zero level of nutrients.

Effect of poor feeding is a general decline in animal productivity which may manifest
in various ways, including:
a) weight loss
b) poor reproductive performance
c) very low or complete cessation of milk production
d) inability of the female animals to conceive
e) abortion
f) low birth weight
g) poor growth of the young animals
h) low resistance to diseases
i) in severe cases, death may occur.

In order to reduce the effects of poor nutrients on the animals, various forms of feed
supplementation are practiced at such critical times. These include:
 Feeding of crop residues from cropped farmlands which scarcely meet the
requirement for improved animal performance.
 Feeding of formulated concentrate feeds which is usually expensive and most
traditional farmers may not be able to afford it.
 Moving the herd to lowland areas or river banks to source for fresh grasses,
this practice is being discouraged because of problems of environmental
pollution, land degradation, damage to crop farms, provision of mineral salt
lick to enhance feed intake and digestibility, etc.
 Feeding of foliage of multipurpose tree species (MPTS) to the animals as
supplement to the poor quality natural pasture. When MPTS are planted this
way and specially managed and dedicated for cutting to supplement animals
in the dry season, it is referred to as ‘intensive feed garden’.
 Grazing of specially planted and dedicated herbaceous legume pasture (e.g.
Stylosanthes species). This type of legume pasture which referred to as
‘fodder bank’ is used mainly for dry season supplementary grazing.

1
ii. Inadequate Breeding/Genetic Improvement Programme

Lack of consistent policy on breeding and improvement of the local breed of animals
for improved productivity is a problem of animal production in Nigeria.

Presently, the indigenous cows are naturally crossbred with bulls or artificially
inseminated at one time; and at another time there is massive importation of exotic
breeds from abroad. Even though the imported animals are improved breeds that
perform excellently in their countries of origin, they rarely survive in our
environment due to differences in climatic conditions. This inconsistent breeding
system, has failed to make any tangible impact on the improvement of the local
breeds.

This results in the production of local breeds of cattle in large numbers that do not
respond to improvement in feeding, management practices and medication. This has
made it difficult to achieve any meaningful improvement in the productivity of the
various animal products such as meat, milk, hides and skin, etc. in the country.

It is for this reason that there are no dedicated beef or dairy cattle breeds, sheep or
goat in Nigeria. Most of the animal breeds are reared as dual purpose breeds with
productivity far below the expected average compared with improved breeds abroad.

iii. Disease and Pest Infestation

A number of important diseases such as rinderpest, contagious bovine
pleuropneumonia (CBPP) and foot and mouth disease (FMD) could generally
threaten animal production in tropical countries, including Nigeria. Apart from
limiting animal production, they also cause widespread infection among animal
populations within a country and for this reason, they are referred to as reportable
diseases. These diseases are very virulent and can cause mass deaths of cattle within a
country. Nigeria was, recently, officially declared free of rinderpest infection.

Other diseases of less epizootic nature such as trypanosomiasis, mastitis, brucellosis,

dermatophilosis, heartwater, etc. are also important as can constitute major challenge
to animal production. Even though they are less virulent, these diseases reduce the
productivity of the national herd (i.e. the total population of cattle in the country)

Although much progress has been made in the diagnosis and control of some of these
diseases, the increasing population of vector-pests (such as tsetse fly) that transmit the
diseases constitute a major hazard and threat to animal production in Nigeria. Tsetse
fly is the vector-pest for transmission of trypanosomiasis and in recent past was
widespread (endemic) in the humid and sub-humid zones of Nigeria making these
areas unconducive for cattle production.

Other pests of significant economic importance are enteric and helminthic parasites of
coccidian emeria, flukes, roundworm and hookworm as well as ectoparasites like
ticks, minge, mites and lice. These cause diarrhoea, loss of appetite, slow growth rate,
unthrithfulness, damages to skin and, most often, debilitating mortality within the
stock leading to huge economic losses.

2
iv. Land Ownership and Usage
The land ownership system or land tenure system remains a major problem to
livestock development or livestock farming in Nigeria. Traditional ruminant
producers or herders have no secured individual accesses or rights to land.
Traditionally, communities, families and individuals who crop the land often lay
claim to ownership of the land.

A concession to carry out agricultural activities is merely given to settled pastoralists

rather than permanent land tenureship. Therefore, non-indigenous livestock producers
find it difficult (or economically impracticable) to invest and develop the land for a
profitable modern animal production business.

However, the land use act of 1978 has vested authority on all land in a state in the
Governor of the state and anyone interested in acquiring land for investment in
animal production can apply for land allocation through the appropriate ministry.

However, the difficulty in obtaining land through this channel still discourages
prospective investors in animal production. Such investors will rather acquire lands
through direct purchases or lease from communities, families and individuals which
may also be very expensive, especially when large pasture land needs to be developed
for ruminant production. A prospective investor may also use a family land if such is
available.

v. Low Investment in livestock production

The rate of investment in the livestock sub-sector in Nigeria is very low, and this has
been mainly responsible for the slow rate of growth in the sector. The reason for this
is that the gestation period for investment to mature and begin to yield return in
livestock production is fairly long. Financial institutions (i.e. banks and investment
houses) will rather give loan to investors in businesses that will yield quick return on
investment, and are less risky. This favours investment in poultry production than
ruminants.

Livestock projects are not quite attractive to financial institutions due to longer period
of animal growth and the high uncertainty that is associated with it unlike trades and
services that have capacity to return borrowed funds and interest more quickly.

In addition, collaterals and guarantee of substantial value are not easily available for
livestock producers to secure sufficient loans to improve production even when
financial institution are willing to give loan. The role of lending funds to investors in
the agricultural sector generally (and livestock sub-sector in particular) is played by
Bank of Agriculture (BOA) with minimal interest rate and moratorium (or maturity)
period of 7 years. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through various financial
interventions (such as Agricultural Credit Support Scheme (ACSS), Commercial
Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS), Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund
(ACGSF), Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing system for Agricultural Lending
(NIRSAL) also give interest-low credits for investment in agriculture.

3
 vi. Institutional Problems or Government Policy

The problem of livestock production industry in Nigeria is also substantially caused

by lack of genuine institutional or government support and political will to muster
required efforts to improve the sector.

In countries with developed livestock industry, such as India, Netherlands, Australia,

New Zealand, USA, UK, etc., deliberate action-packed programmes are outlined by
government, and consistently implemented with very strong extension component
that enables experts work closely and in collaboration with native producers to find
solutions to the problems of production at the farm level.

In Nigeria such planned programmes are tested within a limited area and abandoned,
sometimes frustrated by undue rivalry and competition for position or financial
benefits. Sometimes, such programmes are never fully implemented before abrupt
changes are introduced, especially when there is change of government, and the new
government is not interested in continuing with the programme of the preceding
government.

As a result, Nigeria has as many policies as the number of commissions set up to

assess part or all the teething problems militating against the growth of the livestock
production industry with none seriously benefiting the industry.

As if the poor attitude on the part of government is not enough, the greater undoing
comes from producers who are largely uneducated, conservative and highly mobile.
Meaning extension outreach can rarely accommodate producers who harbor hatred,
suspicion or reject and are nonchalant towards innovations put in place for adoption.

Introductory ruminant production

The word ‘ruminant’ is derived from the Latin word – Ruminare - which means to chew over.
Ruminants (cattle, sheep and goat) were the first food animals to be domesticated followed by
pigs.

Sheep was domesticated 11,000-15,000 years ago in mountains of Southern Europe and
Central/Southwest Asia. Cattle was domesticated 10,000-15,000 years ago in boundaries of
Europe and Asia and/or Southwest Asia.

Ruminants are cud chewing, even toed and hoofed animals. They are mammals belonging to the
order Artiodactyla. They are animals with a complex stomach which includes the rumen,
reticulorumen, omasun and abomasum, unlike the non-ruminants that have simple stomach.

They eat and digest forages or plant based feed by swallowing it first and allowing it to get
moistened in the rumen which is the first compartment of the complex stomach. The swallowed
food is later regurgitated by the animal and re-chewed to break down the plant materials for
digestion. This process is called rumination or chewing the cud. The cud is a semi-solid and

4
semi-degraded digesta usually in a bolus form which is regurgitated from the reticulorumen of
the animal. Examples of ruminant animals are cattle, sheep, goats, camel, water buffalo, giraffes,
antelopes to mention but a few.

Importance of ruminant production

In summary, apart from being a source of meat as other animals, ruminant animals are the main
sources of raw materials such as wool, fur, hides and skin, milk and many others for the
production of clothing materials, leather materials (such as foot wears like shoes, belt, shawl),
milk products like yoghurt, butter, cheese, and many other products. Ruminant animals,
especially bull or camel are also used as draught animals for transportation and traction.

Ruminant animals and their products have tremendous nutritional and economic values to man as
itemized below:
i. Meat and milk of cattle, sheep, goats and other ruminants are good sources of animal
protein to man which are of better quality than plant protein.
ii. They serve as sources of raw materials used in industries e.g. leather goods respectively.
Goat hair is also used for making carpets, bag and ropes. Wool is a raw material for the
production of clothing for human wear. The skin of the Red Sokoto breed of goats in
Nigeria commands high premium in the international market because of its superior
quality.
iii. They serve as means of foreign exchange earnings. Some countries in Europe such as
Denmark and Botswana in Southern region of Africa export beef to earn foreign
exchange. Others export dairy products from milk to earn foreign exchange.
iv. They serve as source of income to subsistence farmers. In Nigeria, cattle, sheep and goats
are kept at subsistence level by farmers.
v. These animals are able to survive on fallow lands and others that are not good for arable
cropping thereby maximizing the use of the available land resource.
vi. They are also used as gifts in traditional engagements, such as payment of bride price,
burial etc.
vii. Source of manure as organic fertilizer to enrich soil fertility for crop production
viii. Biogas production as alternative source of energy for cooking and lightening from animal
manure.
ix. Efficient use of agricultural wastes (such as crop straws, processing wastes, etc.) for
conversion to high quality products such as milk and meat as human food
x. Source of employment through farm labour and skilled labour
xi. Globalization. Ruminant production has important impact on the family through trade
and marketing at the community, national and international levels.
xii. In the South-Western part of Nigeria, goats are relished as meat and as barbecued during
ceremonies. Generally, under the organized production system, ruminant animals are
slaughtered during festive seasons all over the world.
xiii. Blood and bones obtained from slaughtering of these animals are often recycled and
processed into blood meal, bone meal which are used as components of animal feed.
xiv. Cattle, and some other ruminants can also be used as “beast of burden” (i.e. for
transportation and haulage)

5
 Scope and opportunities in ruminant production
1. Agro-climatic variation can lead to cultivation of varied fodder and forages for feeding of
the animals which may provide job opportunity for large number of people not directly
engaged in animal production.
2. High demand for milk and meat products as human population increases leads to greater
urbanization, industrialization and widening of employment opportunities for greater
number of people
3. Ruminant production and associated enterprises can be better option to solve employment
crises as we have in Nigeria.
4. Investment in ruminant production can lead to development of infrastructure, such as
rural roads, electrification, communication, etc.
5. Technological advancement can benefit from ruminant production through the
development of various equipment to handle animal improvement, animal production and
value addition.
6. There could be massive investment of fund in the sector through government
prioritization and provision of subsidies to farmers and investors.
7. Development of value chain and cooperative marketing that could encourage massive
participation of the citizenry in production and processing to satisfy domestic demands
and export of animal products, and industrialization of the country.

Constraints/Challenges to Ruminant Production

- Low access to improved breeds
- Low access to farm input
- High cost of input
- Insufficient processing and storage facilities
- Poor electricity/power supply
- Lack of technical knowhow
- Seasonality of market
- Long process or difficulty in getting government services (such as subsidies, land,
etc)
- Ineffective or total absence of insurance policy
- Ineffective government policy
- Uneducated farmers

Some simple equipment used in ruminant production

For easy production of ruminant or any farm animal certain equipment have been designed and
are used to facilitate management operation. In ruminant animals, these equipment appear to be
common and work with the same principle. Virtually all of these equipment are imported but
could also be fabricated locally. The following equipment are used in ruminant animal
production

a. Weighing Scale
This is used to know the weight of the animal. There are different types of weighing
scales which include; the walk-in type for the animal (both young and adult depending on
their capacity) e.g. weigh bridge where the animal walks on the scale or is transported on
it, and hanging scale.

6
b. Burdizzo Castrator
This is used to castrate unwanted males on the farm. Castration is the act of making a
male animal impotent by open or a surgical removal of its scrotum. This operation is
done for two reasons; to control of matting in the herd, to hasten muscular buildup and
weight gain

c. Elastrator
It is a bloodless castrator that use the ring method

d. Ear tag Forcep/Puncher

It is used for fixing ear tag to the ear of the animal for identification.

e. Tattooing Machine
Tattoing is making durable marks, design or patterns on the skin of an animal by pricking
the skin and rubbing dyes or stains. Tattoing machine is an equipment similar to pliers
with set of letters arranged and well fitted to the tongue of the pliers. It is then rubbed
with an indelible ink to give a permanent marking to the animal.

f. Nipple Feeders
For feeding young cattle with milk replacers.

g. Drenching Gun
This is made of a long tube or rubber hose long enough to enter the mouth of ruminants.
It is used for oral administration of liquid drug especially de-worming
Drugs to the animals

Some management practices in ruminant production

Certain management operations are performed on ruminant animals for effective production of
the herd or the individual animal itself. Some of these shall be discussed hereafter.

a. Debudding
This is the act of removing the horn at its budding stage in cattle, sheep and goats. Most breeds
of these animals carry horn which when fully grown may become source of injury to the other
animals in the flock/herd. This operation is carried out at about age 3 to 4 weeks of age on any of
the animals.

b. Castration
Castration is the act of removing the testicles of a male animal to render them ineffective. This
operation is carried out on all unwanted males in ruminant production. This management
operation prevents unwanted breeding and improves the carcass quality of the animal. It can be
carried out by surgical operation or bloodlessly by the use of a burdizzo or rubber ring elastrator
after the animal must have been haltered. Surgical operation is done within the first week of the
animal’s life while the bloodless one could be done within the first two weeks of life.

7
c. Identification
Animal identification can be in the form of
(i) Ear Tagging
(ii) Tattoing
(iii) Ear notching
(iv) Skin and horn branding.

d. Drenching
This is giving the animal medicine to drink. Usually a drenching gun is used. However, it can be
improvised by the use of a long-necked bottle on which is fastened a short piece of plastic or
rubber tubing. The animal is held in standing position and the bottle put at the back of the mouth
so that the content can run into the oesaphagus. This process is used for deworming.

e. De-worming
The animals are de-wormed regularly at least two times in a year corresponding to seasons and
time of turning them to pasture.

f. Hoof Trimming
This carried out by the use of hoof trimming knife. Overgrown hooves are trimmed to ensure it
does nor harbour germs or disease and allow the animal to walk well. The debris in the hoof
must be removed before carefully cutting the hoof in slices to ensure the tissue is not cut.

g. Docking
The tails of ruminants are cut in a process called docking. This is practiced especially in sheep
within one week of life. Long tails in sheep at times do not make for good mating at adult age.
An elastrator could be used at times to dock the animal and the wound treated. At this age the
pain is minimized.

Feed Materials Used in Ruminant Feeding

Roughages form the main component of ruminant feed. Roughages are bulky feeds containing
high crude fibre content usually above 18% and less than 60% total digestible nutrient.
Roughages are made up of grasses and legumes or products made from these two such as hay
and silage. There are two types of roughages based on their moisture content, namely dry
roughages and succulent roughages. Fresh grasses, legumes and some browse plants and fodders
such as silage constitutes the succulent roughage while hay and other dry standing grass
(standing hay) or straw are the dry roughages.

Dry Roughages
Dry roughage has 10 to15% moisture. These include hay, dry standing grass (standing hay) and
straw. Hay is made by cutting the grass or legume while fresh and is sun dried or cured, baled
and kept in the feed store for dry season or stall feeding.

Succulent Roughages
These are grasses, legumes or browse plants containing above 60% moisture. They can be cut
and fed or grazed directly by the animals.

8
Examples of grasses used as pasture are Guinea grass (Panicum spp.), Gamba grass
(Andropogon spp.), Elephant grass (Pennisetum spp.), Giant star grass (Cynodon spp.),
Brachiaria spp. etc.

Examples of legumes are Centrosema spp., Calopogonium spp., Mucuna spp., Pueraria spp.,
Stylosanthes spp. etc.

Example of the browse plants are Gliricidia spp., Leucena leucocephalia, Acacia spp. etc.

Plants like elephant grass and maize are used to prepare silage. Grasses or legumes are also
planted as pasture, fenced and grazed by ruminant.

Pasture
Pasture is a piece of land which naturally have grasses or legumes growing on it or planted on it.
Pasture can be established by planting some of the grasses or legumes species mentioned above.
If it is a natural pasture it is called natural grassland or if seeded it is called artificial pasture or
sown pasture. After planting a pasture may be fenced to prevent indiscriminate grazing by stray
animals. If grass and legume are planted together the pasture is called grass-legume or mixed
pasture and if only one type of pasture is found, it is sole grass or sole legume pasture. Pastures
can be managed by application of fertilizer and removal of unwanted plant species (spot
weeding).
It can be renovated by burning of mature and dried species to allow new young green
lush pasture to come up or the whole pasture ploughed into the soil so that new ones are allowed
to grow in place of the old.

Grazing systems used in ruminant production

Ruminants are often grazed on pasture where there is facility for it especially during the rainy
season when the grasses/legumes grow luxuriously. At this stage, it can form the sole diet for
beef cattle with little supplementation in form of concentrate in case of dairy. Where fenced, the
pasture could be partitioned or divided into paddocks to facilitate good grazing management. The
grazing system used include, continuous grazing, rotational grazing and strip grazing systems.

Continuous grazing is an uninterrupted type of grazing system. It has the disadvantage of the
pasture being depleted due to overgrazing and a major advantage of little or no need for fencing
thereby lowering cost.
Rotational grazing from the name implies rotating the animal on fenced pastures. It is an
effective grazing management carrying capacity is controlled and persistency of the pasture. It is
also good for the control of parasites and other diseases.
Strip grazing is restricting the animal to a section of the pasture usually with electric fence. It has
an advantage of more efficient utilization of the pasture.
Leader-follower grazing is when the high producing and young vulnerable animals are first
allowed into the paddock to be grazed to eat up the more nutritious part of the pasture while the
less producing (e.g. dry cows, reserved bull etc.) and then allowed to follow to glean the
remnants.

9
Zero-grazing or cut-and-carry system. In this system animals are kept indoor or in the pen and
forage is cut and brought to the animals to feed them indoor. So there is no grazing at all.

Pasture Conservation
During the rainy season, there is usually an abundance in the supply or availability of fodder i.e.
grasses and legumes. Therefore, conservation methods for fodder have been developed over the
years to feed ruminants during the dry season. Fodder may be conserved in form of hay, silage
and haylage. These are further explained below:

Hay
Hay is a green grass, legume or any fodder crop of about 80 to 85% dry matter content,
harvested, chopped and allowed to dry or cure on the field to 15 to 20% moisture content. The
fodder or grass to be used must be harvested in the morning when the weather condition is good
i.e. no rain and bright sunshine. The leaves must not be allowed to shatter or rain allowed to fall
on it to prevent leaching of the nutrients in the leaves. It must be turned regularly on the field to
prevent browning. It is later packed after about two or three days drying on the field, baled using
a hay baler and stored for later use especially during the dry season. Hay must be stored in a well
ventilated store that will prevent the growth of moulds or fungi. Hay infested with fungi or
moulds are definitely not good as feed for ruminants.

Silage
Silage is made from fodder crops (of about 30 – 35% dry matter) through controlled
fermentation to retain its high moisture. Silage making or ensilage involves the cutting and
chopping of forage plants into small pieces and kept in specialized trenches/container called silo
(either a pit or trench). The pieces are packed in air-tight in silos. If it is not air- tight, it will
grow moulds and fungi and become dangerous to feed to animals. Sometime heavy earth moving
machine like a tractor is run over the mass of the chopped fodder if in a trench silo to ensure air-
tightness. After this, it is covered with polythene sheets and held down with heavy objects like
stones, log of wood or used tyres, and then left to ferment for a period of about 21 to 28 days.

A good silage must not grow moulds/fungi and must have pH 4.0 to 5.0. The colour must be
greenish yellow and have a vinegar odour as a result of organic acids such as formic acid, acetic
acid, propionic acid and butyric acid which have formed in it. Silage is very palatable to
ruminants. This is taken and fed to the animals as needed ensuring that air is not allowed to enter
the remaining silage until it is exhausted.

Haylage
Grasses and legumes that are cut for hay making with dry matter range of about 30 to 45% could
be ensiled. The product obtained is called haylage.

10